The Public Holidays and Commemorative Days (Amendment) Bill, 2025, has been approved by Parliament.
The bill’s goal is to make Shaqq Day and July 1 statutory public holidays by amending the Public Holidays and Commemorative Days Act, 2001 (Act 601).
For the Muslim population, it also offers an extra holiday called Shaqq Day, which is celebrated the day after Eid-ul Fitr.
Additionally, the bill restores September 21 as Founders’ Day and removes August 4 as such.
On June 24, 2025, Interior Minister Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka introduced and read the measure for the first time before the House after it was enacted under a certificate of urgency.
That came after it was deemed essential by the Committee on Defense and Interior and the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs leadership.
Mr. Muntaka made the motion to adopt the committee’s report, stating that the government had examined the number of holidays and, in keeping with some of its pledges, had reorganized them to eliminate those that were contentious and those that “we are unanimous and rallied around.”
March 6 is Independence Day, March or April is Good Friday for Christians, March or April is Easter Monday for Christians, May 1 is Labor Day, July 1 is Republic Day, and January 1 is New Year’s Day, he said. January 7 is Constitutional Day.
According to him, the government “is bringing it back as a full holiday” because it felt that July 1st was a very important day in Ghanaian history.
“We believe that as a country we are united around July 1,” he said, telling the House that August 4 was being taken out as Founders’ Day.
“Because we believe that as a country we are not unanimous around it and it served as a divisive day for us as Ghanaians,” he said.
According to him, Christians would celebrate Christmas Day on December 25 and Farmers’ Day on the first Friday in December.
“Then we have December 26 as Boxing Day for our Christian brothers and sisters as well as Eud-ul-Fitr which is a lunar date sometimes which varies for our Muslim community.
“We are introducing the Shaqq Day, which is a day after Eud-ul-Fitr, as an additional day for our Muslim community, and Eid-ul-Adha which is also lunar,” he said.
The minister stated that the number of holidays, which now total 14, was not too high.
Source: newsthemegh.com